Saturday, August 5, 2017

Asteroid 2017 NB7 to Fly By Earth on August 6

Asteroid 2017 NB7 to Fly By Earth on August 6:



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A newly discovered Amor-type asteroid, designated 2017 NB7 is slated to pass by Earth on Sunday, Aug. 6 at a safe distance of 6.8 lunar distances (LD), or 2.6 million kilometers. The near-Earth object (NEO) will fly by our planet at approximately 10:43 UTC with a relative velocity of 5.98 km/s.

2017 NB7 was detected on July 1, 2017 by the Mount Lemmon Survey (MLS), which uses a 1.52 m cassegrain reflector telescope at Mount Lemmon Observatory in Arizona. MLS is one of the most prolific surveys when it comes to discovering new NEOs. It has detected more than 50,000 minor planets to date.

Astronomers reveal that 2017 NB7 has a diameter between 36 and 110 meters, and an absolute magnitude of 23.6. The asteroid has a semimajor axis of approximately 1.6 AU and orbits the sun every two years.

Besides 2017 NB7, one more space rock is expected to give fly by Earth on Aug. 6. The asteroid 2017 OJ7, which is 41-130 meters in diameter, will miss our planet at a much larger distance of nearly 30 LD (11.5 million kilometers).

Currently, there are 1,803 Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) detected, however none of them is on a collision course with our planet. PHAs are asteroids larger than 100 meters that can come closer to Earth than 19.5 LD.

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